The Man Is Keeping Us Down: Difference between revisions

Typically the work of a [[Strawman Political]] racist or sexist or some other kind of narrow-minded bigot. The heroes have failed through no fault of their own, but rather due to factors in the world beyond their control which are largely a problem with their society. Expect a [[Downer Ending]] with a possibly [[Anvilicious]] [[An Aesop|message]] about the real-world social ills that [[Author Tract|motivated the author]] to write this. Alternatively there's a message of redemption where the heroes manage to overcome the otherwise insurmountable obstacles. In this case it becomes an inspirational story. In either case, the villains tend to be treated more as a [[Villain Byby Default|general group]] to be avoided/overcome/defeated/etc. than [[Villain Decay|one man who has problems with the heroes]].

Compare with [[Glurge]], where it's the villains or pitiable background characters who meet this fate -- the heroes are safe in siding with the morally upright side.

* The French film ''[[Z (Filmfilm)|Z]]'' does this well, portraying the work of an unnamed junta taking power in an unnamed European country... but the Greek government that prompted the movie's creation is always mentioned in the same sentence when the film is described.

* Parodied in ''[[Undercover Brother]]'', in which there really ''is'' a '"Man'" who is keeping African Americans as second-class citizens and controls a massive secret organisation devoted to this purpose. Also parodied with '"Conspiracy Brother'", a parody of black activists who often goes on rants of this nature; however, he's also spectacularly ill-informed, liable to fly off the handle at the slightest provocation and construe ''anything'' as being part of a conspiracy to keep black people down regardless of how innocent or nakedly ludicrous it really is, and really rather stupid.

* ''[[Crash (Filmfilm)|Crash]]'' (Thethe non-[[David Cronenberg|Cronenberg]] one), according to some of the characters.

* ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four|1984]]'' features a man in an oppressive dystopia finding a small measure of freedom, only to lose it when the secret police catch him.

== [[Live -Action TV]] ==

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